32
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperThe Shack is a well-acted and sometimes moving but far too often slow-paced and unconvincing spiritual journey.
- 50VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanThe strangest thing about The Shack, and the reason it’s finally a so-so movie, is that all the rage and terror and dark-side vengeance that Mack has to learn to transcend is something we’re told about, but we never actually see him mired in it.
- 50The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe New York TimesNeil GenzlingerA bit more editing to remove some of the airiness would have made for a better film.
- 42IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandSpencer and Alush turn in the film’s best performances, and Spencer’s natural warmth and Alush’s deep charm keep The Shack hammering right along.
- 40Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangAs directed by Stuart Hazeldine, even its jolts of surrealism feel curiously stilted; what it needed was a director whose reverence would be tempered by a healthy sense of the ludicrous, an ability to tap into and draw out the material’s stranger undercurrents.
- 40Time OutTime OutFor a faith-based film that aims to promote spiritual healing and prescribe forgiveness, The Shack is almost unforgivably joyless and visually bland.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenHowever universal the perennial questions and struggles that The Shack illuminates, under Stuart Hazeldine’s plodding direction, its faith-based brand of self-help feels like being trapped in someone else’s spiritual retreat — in real time.
- 30New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczNew York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczIt takes its sweet time to achieve anything beyond being a grueling snoozefest.
- 25The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThere’s nothing about this unconscionably long movie (it runs a whopping 132 minutes) that suggests anyone involved ever watched it from start to finish. But it looks nice enough, like a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, with lots of flowers and flannel.
- 20Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAfter seeing The Shack — after enduring, that is, its 132 minutes of blissed-out New Age religiosity — I’ve become a believer. I believe there is no role Octavia Spencer can’t play with convincing feeling and an impeccably straight face.